Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Breakfast with Moet.

I think we will all agree that breakfast is better
with champagne. Sadly, for most of us, the reality falls short of the fantasy,
in terms of the frequency with which we enjoy such a meal. For those of royal blood,
champagne breakfasts may be rather more regular event. Certainly, when Prince
Henry of Prussia visited the United States in 1902, he was served champagne – Moët
no less – at many of the official dinners he attended – and at least one of these
was a breakfast.

The Omaha
Daily Bee of May 12, 1902 carried a large display advertisement which
included ‘reproductions of menus of banquets where Moët & Chandon was used
exclusively.’ The advertisement was placed by Geo. A.Kessler & Co., - ‘Sole
Agents in the United States and Canada,’ and the menus were for events attended
by Prince Henry of Prussia, who was at that time on an extended visit to the USA. Here is a menu for the most important meal of the day:

Breakfast

to

H.R.H. Prince Henry of Prussia.

Wednesday, February 26th, 1902

At Sherrys

New York

Oeufs à la Néva

Homard Cardinal

Carré d’Agneau de Printemps

Pointes
d’Asperges Pommes Rissolées

Terrapène

Canard Canvasback

Salade

Glace Mousse
aux fraises

Fromage Fruits

Café

Johannisberger
Cabinet ‘93

Moët and
Chandon ‘92

Apollinaris

Surely
this was a late brunch rather than a breakfast?

I
wanted to give you the recipe for Oeufs à
la Négva, as it is the most likely dish from this menu that I would have
chosen for my own breakfast (it should go without saying that I could not have
attempted the whole list of dishes, although the strawberry mousse might have
been tempting.) Sadly, I have been unable to find a recipe, which is not
surprising really, as it was quite common to tweak an existing classic and re-name
it for an honoured guest. The following recipe sounds good enough to take its
place however:

Russian Eggs.

On delicate slices of
toast, spread a layer of caviar, and place a fresh poached eggs [sic] on top;
pepper, salt and a few drops of lemon juice are added and a garnish of parsley;
serve at once.

I had thought it would be some sort of scrambled eggs with caviar ("Neva") or even better, smoked Teutonic Knight, but it seems to be hard-boiled eggs filled with chilled vegetable mayonnaise, garnished with parsley. Not very exciting. But maybe this is just one recipe.

James Barber included a recipe for Russian egg salad which was hard-boiled eggs cut into eighths, topped with a sauce of freshly sauteed walnuts, olive oil, and dill, then covered with a hot pepper relish. (or perhaps jelly) Not sure if that helps.